Half Breed
by strawberryblush
Summary: D is hired on as a bodyguard for a group of women with a secret - one that is too close to comfort for him.
1. One

[I own nothing but the OCs and a load of debt. I also make nothing from this endeavour.

"How long?"

"Five days. At the most."

"We don't _have_ five days, doc."

"I am well aware, Sarah. As a matter of fact, I took the liberty of contacting all the outside hospitals that we could afford. The closest is eight days travel."

"So she's dead. She's dead, but she just hasn't stopped breathing yet. But the boy-"

"No! Do not be so quick to condemn her. We could reach that hospital if we took the dead zone."

The pair of women paused in their talks, each of them looking through a window into a room were a heavily pregnant woman lay unconscious, numerous tubes connected to the IVs in both her arms. On the other side of the window, an African-American woman with braided hair in a white coat that bore the name tag 'Dr. Helen McCoy' was looking curiously at the other.

The other was close to six feet in height, with long chestnut hair pulled into a plait. In facial features, she was identical to the unconscious patient they were discussing – wide blue eyes, generous mouth and stubborn chin. She was currently looking at the doctor with an expression of disbelief.

"Look doc, I appreciate what I demonstrated when I explained our heritage was…impressive, but taking the dead zone alone would be too risky to contemplate – with more of you along for the ride, it would become impossible."

The other woman looked impatient. "Not if we hire a hunter."

"There's a female hunter in the area?"

"No."

There was a shocked pause as both women stared at each other, one looking slightly scandalised, the other looking deadpan. Eventually, Sarah rubbed her eyes, forehead creased in a frown. "I need to think it through."

Dr. McCoy looked concerned. "Sarah, the longer we pause…"

"I know!" The other woman snapped. Then, her voice softened. "I know. But contracting…I know. But it has consequences for more than just Beth. Five minutes, that's all I ask."

Dr McCoy sighed. "Five minutes then, I need a decision by then."

Sarah left the room in a hurry, going to the nearest empty room and slumping into a chair next to the window, overlooking the main street. It was crowded – today was market day, and every spare foot of space seemed to have someone in it, either hurrying from place to place, or standing with friends and talking, laughing.

An outsider would possibly have noticed that there were three unusual things about the town from Sarah's vantage point. The first was that rather than the normal barricade of crosses many towns sported to keep away hostiles, this one had a full palisade – as tall as a 20ft in some places, never lower than 12, it ran solidly around the town, on featuring only two gaps for gates at either end of the main road.

The second was that on this palisade was a large scorch mark that looked recent, and a burnt out square that looking like it might once have hosted a large building.

The third was that every adult in sight was female. The occasional male child ran to and fro in places, but no men could be seen anywhere within the walls – or even, on the walls.

Inside the room, Sarah gave a snort that sounded frustrated, and got to her feet. Walking to the room's door, she opened it, and stuck her head into the corridor.

"Doc?" she called. "Doc? What the hell – let's try it."

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

An hour away, in a different town, a tall mysterious man was preparing to ride out.

Despite only being in the town an hour, he had collected quite a crowd. It had started first with the children; to them a stranger was always new and exciting, and rarely had they seen one both so tall and with such a big sword. They followed the man around the town as he visited the supply store and the ostler, hiding in conspicuous places, and giggling to each other as he passed.

He paid them no attention.

The adults started paying attention due to Mrs Rowntree, the woman who had served him at the supply store she ran with her husband. She had remembered the story her sister had told her in her last letter, about the unearthly and beautiful man with long black hair, who wrapped himself up away from sunlight, who had rescued their mayor's daughter last year. She had muttered this to her husband while trotting around the store, who had passed it onto several customers, who had told others the second they had left the shop, and soon the man was surrounded by whispered conversations, and loaded silences as the people stared at him as he passed.

He paid them no attention.

Finally, as he was about to leave the ostler's, supplies for his mount in hand, a young woman was the one to actually break the barrier of speculation surrounding him.

"Excuse me, sir?" she asked, words coming out breathless and tumbled, even more so when he turned to look at her. She couldn't help but notice how beautiful his eyes were… "Sir, the whole town is wondering…are you a vampire hunter?"

There was a few seconds of silence as he seemed to consider her, her question, and possibly the surrounding crowd that had all seemed to stop and be listening for his answer too.

Finally, he spoke. "Yes," he said, his speech slow and deliberate, as if he picked his words with care. "Yes I am."

There was a pleased hubbub of noise that met this last statement, and the young woman blushed madly, for reasons she couldn't understand, at his answer.

"You are? Oh, how exciting! Please, sir, what do they call you?"

There was another pause, but this time, the deliberations seemed more internal – less consideration of the crowd around him, and more of himself. Finally, he answered again.

"D." He said, simply.

And with that, he turned and left.

Not a minute later, a short, balding man whose waistcoat strained to contain his belly hurried out of a building along the main street, where everyone was standing, discussing the stranger.

"Hey, Cole, why so rushed?" shouted someone from the crowd at the man.

"Got a message!" shouted back Cole. "A message from Aama."

There was a momentary shocked hush at his words, when someone spoke again.

"From…Aama?"

Cole nodded. "Why the devil they're asking us I don't know, but they're looking for a hunter-"

He was cut off by the sudden shout of noise as everyone in the town had the same idea and went haring off in the direction the stranger had gone.

Eventually Cole was left standing in the middle of the street, watching his town disappear down the main road.

"Well, I'll be blown," he muttered to himself. "What was all that about?"


	2. Two

"I expect you'll be wanting to know then," Cole ventured, riding alongside the vampire hunter, less than an hour after the message had come in. "About where we're going."

D looked at him. "But you said you didn't know what sort of contract it was."

"Ah, no, I don't," admitted Cole. "I meant the town. It's a little…special."

D said nothing, but Cole apparently took this as a sign to go on.

"Well, it wasn't much of a town at first – most places were build to be towns, you know, what with settlers coming along in groups and picking their spot. But Aamas grew almost…organic, like. It started with one group of women – less than ten of them, there were, maybe fifty years ago. They'd run, you see, from men who were abusing them. There'd been far more of them to start off with, but they'd gone through the dead zone to loose their abusers, and it had killed most of them off. Killed most of the men too, mind, so they didn't have them to worry about no more.

Then, we're told, they realised that on their own, after being on the run, they'd be vulnerable. So they built a place, and defended it. And then, other women, who'd also been abused or on the run, heard about it, and went to join them. And the town grew larger, and their defences grew stronger, and more heavy duty, and well…Now, it's like a fortress."

D appeared to be paying minimal attention to the man's babblings.

"Now, o'course, they take all comers, but they have rules…if they let you in, you'll be the first man to cross over that threshold in over thirty years that wasn't born or raised there. We know about what's inside from those that come to live outside – the kids fall in love and want families, naturally, but they won't have it – sanctuary for single women only. You want to be a couple, you gotta leave. And they do – bout the same number that arrive. Why they need a hunter…well, I can't wait to hear that."

D gave a single nod in acknowledgement, and the two rode on.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

"Their ETA is two hours."

"Barely enough time."

"But enough – we can leave before the day's out."

Sarah nodded in agreement with the doctor. "How fast can we travel?"

"We should be there within the three day mark if there are no…complications."

"If there are…you know what Beth's wishes are."

"Yes."

They stood in silence for a while. Eventually, Sarah spoke. "Will it be just the three of us going then?"

"No, just in case something happens to me…we can't spare another doctor, so it'll be one of the nurses. I think Michelle volunteered."

"Nice of her."

"To be honest, I think she needs the money."

Sarah considered this for a minute. "I'll pay her in advance. Just…just in case."

"Sensible."

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

D and his guide arrived within the 2 hour mark. The town walls loomed above them, intimidating – guards looked down from the walls and talked among themselves. Cole made a fool of himself by waving his arms frantically and yelling at the guards to let them in. D dismounted and stood patiently with his mount.

After about ten minutes the gates slowly creaked open, and a woman walked out and headed towards them. Cole greeted her enthusiastically.

"Hey, little lady! We were just wondering if-"

"Which one of you is the hunter?" Sarah said, abruptly cutting him off.

D nodded his acknowledgement.

She looked him up and down while he more discreetly studied her. He seemed to note her height and harsh manner, while she took note of the fact he was even taller than she was, and the sheer size of the sword strapped to his back.

"Good." Was all she said. Then she turned to Cole and dropped a small pouch of money into his palm. "You are dismissed." She turned away to give her attention to D.

Cole mouthed wordlessly at her back in outrage, and then finally deflated when he realised that was all he was getting, and turned to slink away.

"You name?" she asked, bluntly.

"D," he answered.

"Mine is Sarah, Sarah Laker. Our request is a simple one – escort myself, my sister and her two attendants through the dead zone to the town of Hamilton, then see us back here once we're done."

D seemed to take a moment to digest this information. "May I ask why you are so set on travelling through the dead zone?"

"My sister is heavily pregnant, and went into labour about twelve hours ago, but the baby isn't turned the right way; she needs a caesarean section, but because she has a medical condition, she needs specialist care to be able to have one. Our hospital was…attacked last week. The only part of it left is the foundations – the nearest place with the right equipment is in Hamilton. We've put her into an artificially induced coma to prevent the labour, but even that gives her only about five days before it becomes too late. If we travel to Hamilton without going through the dead zone, the journey would take eight days, but if we go through it, it's only-"

"Three." Finished D. "I understand; what sort of condition does your sister have?"

Sarah was looking slightly out of sorts, shaking her head slightly and crinkling her nose as if something nearby smelt bad. "It's to do with her blood – it won't clot properly. Unless we have the right equipment on hand, she'll bleed to death during the surgery."

"Then I suggest we leave as soon as possible," replied D.

"What are your rates?" asked Sarah, seeming to ignore his advice for the moment.

D looked at her, as if considering something. "What currency is most common here?"

"Sterling, mostly, although dollars are generally accepted as well."

"Very well; I will come to you with a price when I know more about the currency value. If it is unacceptable to you, we shall negotiate."

Sarah looked slightly startled. "How do you know we won't run out on you?"

D seemed to shrug without moving. "I am a hunter. You cannot."

Sarah was backing away, looking at him with what could have been called a suspicious look in her eye. "Right. I'll make sure the others are ready to go."

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Inside the walls, Helen was trying to calm a panicked looking young woman in her early twenties who looked like she was on the verge of a full blown hysterical fit.

"Charlotte, alright, listen," said the doctor, sounding exasperated, as she spotted Sarah approaching out of the corner of her eye. "He's a hunter, the best around. He will stop anything else reaching us. I have to ride in the carriage at first to stabilise Beth, but after that, if you want, we can swap so you don't have to interact with him."

"But…but I haven't been outside the walls in nearly twenty years!" cried Charlotte. "What if-"

"You can 'what if' yourself to death," said Sarah grumpily as she passed and started checking the bags on her horse were secure. "'What if' will do nothing but hinder us; if you decide you don't have it in you to come, fine, but tell us now, and give back the pay so we can find someone else to come."

The was a momentary pause as Charlotte seemed to do a lot of internal weighing, very rapidly. Eventually, she said "ok, I'll come," in a small voice, and mounted her horse, looking very deflated.

Sarah shot Helen a look.

"She'll be fine," muttered back Helen. "Put an injured person in front of her, and it's like you've injected 40 years of maturity. It's when the only she's got to look after is herself that the problems arise; Beth will be fine in her hands."

"She'd better be," replied Sarah sternly.


	3. Three

The group set an easy pace for their mounts as they left Aama's walls. Sarah questioned D on what he expected within the dead zone.

"Many things are possible," D answered finally, after a thoughtful pause. "Werewolves, demons, mutants, spirits...possibly even a vampire, although I have not heard of one that counts this area as within their territory."

Sarah seemed to stiffen at this last. "And if we do come across a vampire, how do we approach the situation?"

"You don't," D replied. "I do - it is what you hired me for, afterall."

Sarah huffed in impatience and moved away to ride beside the carriage that carried her unconscious sister. Charlotte, meanwhile, moved until she was riding beside the hunter, and started peppering him with questions about when and where they'd camp.

Sarah watched this out of the corner of her eye with a frown on her face. The frown grew larger when, despite D's lack of verbosity, Charlotte's enthusiasm for talking to him did not diminish.

When they stopped to water the horses just outside the boundary of the dead zone, Sarah took the opportunity to speak to Dr. McCoy without being overheard.

"Doesn't it strike you as strange?" she asked, squeezing herself alongside the other woman inside the carriage.

"What?"

Sarah nodded in the direction of D and Charlotte. "Her behaviour? Less than three hours ago she was shaking at the thought of outside contact, and near hyperventilating when told our guard was a man. And now, she's..."

Helen peered out of the window, and then gave Sarah a sideways look. "Are you saying she's lying about her past?"

"No." Sarah replied, sharply. "Not at all. It's not her I'm worried about. It's...him."

Once again both women peered out of the carriage window, this time at D.

Eventually, the doctor spoke. "Alright, some pieces don't fit. Yes, he's way above average when it comes to looks, but hunters...I was always under the impression they carried more gear than just a couple of saddlebags and a sword. Not to mention, they normally pick up scars in the line of duty..." She looked at Sarah. "But it's more than that, isn't it? What do you know that I don't?"

"Two things, possibly related." Sarah replied, sitting back from the window and ticking points off on her fingers. "One, he's got pheremones coming off him like nobody's business. I mean, he literally oozes them. That's why Charlotte's behaving that way. You would be too, had you had contact with him; the only reason I'm not is because I can identify them and filter them out. That's why she's exhibiting the drastic turnaround; her behaviour wouldn't alter from what it was in Aamas were we to come across another human who didn't give off the chemicals he is. But he does."

"Shit." Helen looked out of the window consideringly. "Is it a trap? Is he posing as a hunter until this stuff he's spraying all over us kicks in and then he has us? Do you think we should-"

"Wait." Sarah pulled Helen back from the window. "Let me finish. The second is he's not human."

There was a moment of shocked silence. "He's not?" Helen said, finally. "Then...is he like you?"

Sarah snorted. "No. Since when have you seen people have that reaction to us? From what I saw of the man who guided him to Aamas, even members of the same gender get infatuated, although to a milder extent. No, he's...different to Beth and me. Although knowing what he isn't doesn't get us very far with knowing what he is."

"Should we confront him? Afterall, if he's been sent with instructions..." Helen snuck another glance out of the window at their escort; it looked like they had finished watering their horses and were getting ready to mount up again. "Blast; we're running out of time."

"Confronting him is possibly the worst thing we could do. Imagine he's an unknowing third party; if we confront him then we reveal what we are, and what we're transporting. Hey presto, we've suddenly got a third party to do us harm, on top of whatever the hell is in the dead zone and ...him."

"So we're just supposed to play possum? That sounds like putting fish in a barrel and then handing him the blaster!"

Sarah spotted Charlotte heading their way and opened the door a crack. "Just a minute!" She closed the door again and turned back to Helen. "Of course not. Just..sleep with your gun, keep the safety off, and be prepared to have to leg it while I deal with him."

Helen sighed. "Well, I knew this was hardly going to be easy, but I hadn't anticipated this kind of complication. Alright; safety off."

Sarah nodded and slipped out of the carriage, mounting up while Charlotte did the same, all the while still chattering all the while to the silent man beside her.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

The dead zone didn't look anything like its name - compared to the surrounding countryside, it was lush, verdant and green, or at least appeared so in the light of the setting sun.

"Do you think we should camp, or keep moving?" Sarah shouted to D, as their pace increased.

"Moving, for as long as the horses can handle it." He replied, his voice seeming to carry effortlessly across the space between them without any increase in volume.

They galloped on, Sarah and D riding hard, Charlotte not so much riding as clinging to the back of her horse, and Helen, who'd moved to the driver seat of the carriage, whipping the horses as fast as they'd go.

After less than a minute since they'd passed over the threshold into the zone, something large and black detached itself from the lengthening shadows and flew at them.

Sarah barely had time to reach for her blaster before D had drawn his sword and disembowled it - it's body fell to the ground but they were moving too fast for anyone to be able to identify what it had been. Charlotte wailed, sounding close to hysterical, when D fell back to ride beside, guiding her mount to the side of the carriage and yanking the door open.

"Get inside," he said. Charlotte scrambled to comply, and once she was inside, D locked the door on her and hitched her mount to the back of the carriage.

Without Charlotte riding, their pace increased again, and the ground flew past under their horses' hooves. Sarah took to keeping her blaster out, and managed to shoot maybe 1 in 5 of the things that flew at them before D dealt with them. Helen paid no attention to either of them, all her attention focused on guiding the carriage over the smoothest route, mouth set in a grim line as she concentrated, apparently trusting them both to keep any threats away from her.

After about an hour, the number of black flyers diminished as they came upon a thick forest, the trees too closely spaced to allow the carriage through. D's mouth seemed to tighten in frustration.

"Nothing for it," said Sarah, as they slowed to a stop outside of it. "We'll have to go around."

"Agreed," replied Helen, sounding grim.

The carriage door opened, and Charlotte's head emerged from it. "What's going on? Why have we stopped? Oh D, I'm scared!" she wailed.

"Stay inside," D replied, turning to follow the curve of the trees.

Charlotte disappeared inside the carriage again as they began to move.


	4. Four

Their pace had slowed to a rapid walk as it became obvious that negotiating the carriage, even around the edge of the wood, was not a job to be done too rapidly for fear of damaging it. Roots and branches made for unsteady travel, and twice they had to pause while they lifted a wheel free of a tangle of mud and roots.

The moon was beginning to reach its crest when they finally reached the true side of the forest, which thinned to a field alongside a river.

It was then that they heard a howl echo out of the woods towards them.

D's head snapped around in the direction of the sound, as did Sarah's. Helen grappled with the reigns as the horses reared in fear.

"Werewolf," said D, succinctly.

A second, then a third howl answered the first. The horses were beginning to panic – only D's cyborg was as calm as ever.

"A pack of them," said Sarah, looking at Helen with wide eyes.

"We have to move," said D. "Now! Quickly, while we still have space."

It wasn't so much a case of spurring on the horses as letting them go; their pace jumped to breakneck once more as they raced alongside the water. But after a mere few minutes of their headlong chase, it became obvious they were loosing; harsh breaths could be heard from the darkness next to them, as well as the soft patter of racing paws.

D unsheathed his sword silently as he rode, as Sarah readied her blaster, with a worried look at its energy bar.

From off to their right, there was a snarl and then a sudden blur of movement as both a werewolf and D _moved_. Both had the same destination in mind; the drivers seat of the carriage, where Helen was fighting to keep the horses on the same course. D reached it a split second before his opponent, and neatly bisected the creature, covering Helen and the front half of the carriage with gore.

"Fantastic," muttered Sarah. "Like that's not going to make it easy for them to track us."

D either didn't hear, or ignored her, remaining crouched over Helen, blade at the ready.

With howls, two more creatures leapt from the darkness, one at D, the other at Sarah; D killed his with a neat thrust through it's eye, flinging the body away into the darkness, while Sarah scared hers off with two shots from her blaster – she hit it twice on the same shoulder, and although the thing seemed to stumble before returning to the darkness.

Then her blaster gave a sudden whir, and all the indicator lights on it went off.

"Shit!" cursed Sarah, groping in her saddlebags for any other weapon she had on her. Only the handle of her dagger met her fingers – the rest was in the coach; she hadn't realised she'd wear down the charge this quickly.

"Get up here!" called Helen in a worried voice, as D, who had not even thrown Sarah a glance, scanned the passing darkness.

"We'll loose the mount!" replied Sarah, riding up beside the coach.

"Fuck the mount, at this rate, we'll lose you!" Helen shot back.

Then it happened; two werewolves appeared from the darkness, heading towards Sarah, while in the blink of an eye, a young man appeared on the top of the coach.

D's attention was immediately focused on the young man, as was Helen's, until Sarah shrieked as she her mount stumbled under her, allowing itself to be herded away fro the protection of the carriage.

Still, D's attention stayed with the man. "Vampire," he said. It was not a question.

The man – vampire – grinned, exposing fangs. "Correct. But, hunter, you have something of mine. I am going to take it back."

"No!" The scream of rage came, not from D who had already slashed at the creature on the carriage, forcing it to leap backwards or be severed, but from Sarah.

A look of sudden determination in her eyes, and moving faster than she had previously – much faster than she had previously – she grasped the neck of the werewolf closest to her, and threw it.

There was a 'crack' as the beast's head twisted at an unnatural angle, and it smashed into the river. The second creature leapt for her, but she caught it by the head and ripped its lower jaw off before dropping it.

Helen watched open mouthed. D's only reaction was a fractional raise of his eyebrow. There was a terrified wail from inside the carriage.

The vampire took advantage of the secondary distraction created by Sarah's outburst to punch his hand through the roof of the carriage. A shriek of fear rose from inside it.

D leapt forward, blade moving faster than the eye could follow, and the vampire ducked and weaved, leaping from the carriage to the surrounding darkness and then back again – between the two of them, it was almost like watching some oddly choreographed and brutal dance.

"Fuck off!" screamed Sarah, pulling something from her saddlebag.

"Sweet Sarah," said the vampire's voice from the darkness, with a taunting edge to it. "You must learn some manners, but I am curious; how, exactly, do you plan to make me, little bitch?"

"Like this!" replied Sarah, and suddenly a burst of light shone from the device in her hands directly onto the vampire.

The vampire gave a scream of pain as every part of him that was exposed to it burst into flame. He ducked out of the light and disappeared into the night.

Around them, all was silent except for the noise made by their own passage. With a dancer's grace, D seemed to step from the roof of the carriage onto his mount.

Sarah was breathing hard, her hands shaking slightly, and she held the torch as if she was not entirely sure what to do with it. On the carriage, Helen was gripping the reigns so hard her knuckles had gone white, and there was something about her posture that suggested she was going to break down, but not until it was safe to do so.

D's voice carried in the new quiet of the dark. "Dawn is in under four hours. We will make camp then, and you and I," he looked at Sarah. "You and I will talk."


	5. Five

They set up camp quickly, Helen barely glancing at either D or Sarah before disappearing into the carriage to check on Beth.

A minute later Charlotte emerged from the carriage, looking sulky. She threw Sarah a panicked and somewhat terrified glance, and then went to D's side as he began to de-tack his mount, chattering and generally getting in the way as he wordlessly removed his gear before rubbing it down and hobbling it.

Sarah watched them with consternation in her eyes, seeing for her own mount, and then setting a camp fire and started a pot of water to boil.

She turned slightly pale when D finally spoke. "Charlotte, I need to speak to Sarah, alone – may I trust you with arranging rations for our group?"

Charlotte had initially looked sulky at D's pronouncement that he needed to speak to Sarah alone, but at the word 'trust' her expression brightened, and she shot Sarah a smug look.

Sarah just frowned at her, then looked at D who was watching her expectantly. "Will you walk with me?" he asked, turning to head away from the group.

She sighed and got to her feet to follow. They walked in silence for about ten minutes, D looking entirely unconcerned, Sarah looking worried, with an overtone of a small child caught by their teacher while doing something wrong.

Then they stopped in the shade of a willow tree. D turned to look at Sarah, his wide brimmed hat covering most of his face so she couldn't make out his expression.

"Explain," was all he said.

"Explain what?" replied Sarah, somewhat sullen. "Which part? What do you want to know?"

"Start with how the vampire knew your name."

Sarah looked D, slightly startled; of all the things that could have been asked, apparently she had not expected that one to be first.

"I expect Beth told him," she said at last, sitting beside the water, and reaching out to tug at the whisps of branches trailing in the water.

There was a pause as D seemed to digest this information. "Maybe you'd better start at the beginning," he said finally.

Sarah sighed, and leant back to lie on the ground, looking up at the leaves of the willow as the morning's light peeked through at her.

"His name is Erik. We don't know what house he's from, but local rumour has it he's relatively young for the nobility, only a couple of thousand years. Young enough to be far from the invincible forces his elders are…but also young enough to be able to adapt to new ideas as the world changes around him, unlike his elders, who are staid, and set in their ways.

Apparently – again, all I am telling you is hearsay, passed around the rumour mill within Aamas – about fifty years ago, he came to the realisation that even with the aid of their technology, their genetic manipulation of humans and other creatures, their mutants and their demons and their castles, even with all of these, eventually, the vampire race was doomed to extinction.

This was apparently a result of a few hundred years of study, where he charted the progress of vampires he knew. Things like territory gained, new vampires created through Kiss or through birth, net income, against things like vampires killed, revolts by humans that succeeded, circumventions of vampire technology that were developed, that sort of thing. He came to the conclusion that, but for one single variable, the humans and the vampires would be evenly matched, and the status quo that is our world today would continue indefinitely, which was hardly a perfect solution for his race, but an eventually acceptable one.

The variable that swung the end result was hunters. More specifically, vampire hunters. To be even more specific than that, vampire hunters with Noble heritage; I don't know if you've heard of them, they're called dunpeals or some such."

"Dhampirs. And yes, you could say I've heard of them," interjected D, his voice flat.

Sarah nodded, not looking at D. "As you say; these hunters, for reasons unspecified, normally sided with the humans; Erik, or so it is believed, is trying to even the balance by creating dhampirs, which he will then raise to fight on his side. This should even the human's advantage, and return the future of a continuing status quo. If his plan is successful, then **his** hunters may wipe out ours, and vampires gain the advantage, turning a human-dominant future into a vampire-dominant one. Apparently quite a few of the Nobility liked this idea, so it's becoming a strategy employed by vampires fairly widely. Erik just happened to pick Aamas and the surrounding counties as his hunting ground."

"And so, the object he referred to as his would be…" said D, voice as emotionless as ever.

"Beth's baby," said Sarah, not looking at D. "He raped her to get her pregnant, and now he wants the child to form the first of his new army of dhampirs."

There was silence. Sarah still wasn't looking at D, but her posture was tense, speaking of the tension in the moment. D stood beneath the willow, face covered, and his posture didn't seem to have changed a jot.

Eventually, he spoke. "The easiest solution would be to kill the child."

Sarah sat up with a snarl. "You do that, hunter or no, I'll rip your throat out."

The change in Sarah was sudden, but definite. Her pupils became slits rather than round, and the iris' of her eyes took on a definite yellow tint. Her hands clenched and suddenly her fingernails seemed just a little longer, sharper, more claw-like than before, and her lips were pulled back to reveal canines that were just a little more curved than they should have been.

For the first time, D's voice actually showed emotion; curiosity more than anything else.

"What _are_ you?"

"Show me yours and I'll show you mine," chanted Sarah in a toneless, humourless voice, eyes still fixed on the hunter's frame. "There's two bodies under this tree and neither of them are human – what are you, hunter?"

"Alright," said D, his voice back to its emotionless state once again. "I'm a dhampir. I'm the same as what your sister is about to give birth to, and I can say with absolute certainty that you'd be doing him, or her, a favour by killing it before it draws its first breath. Now you."

Sarah stared at D is disbelief, her features fading back to human. Then she closed her eyes and muttered "stupid, stupid, stupid." Then she looked back at D.

"My kind don't have a fancy name, so I'll just state straight out what origins Beth and I have – our mother was a human, our father was a werewolf. So what Beth carries is **not** like you, dhampir, he's stronger, and what's more, he's going to be crucial in the fight against the vampires and those they've sired. We can't kill him because, aside from the obvious emotional issues, we **need** him."


	6. Six

They glared at each other, Sarah obviously outraged at D's suggestion that her sister's child die, and D equally so by her suggestion that they were dependant on the child.

The tension in the moment was broken by a scream, shortly followed by the sounds of blaster fire from the direction of the camp.

The both moved with unnatural speed, D a beat ahead of Sarah although she all but leapt to her feet. They raced along the river bank, quickly coming into view of the carriage, on top of which Helen was stood, shooting down mist devils with deadly accuracy. Charlotte was nowhere in sight.

"Where?" was all D said as they approached, while Sarah dodged the falling remnants of a mist devil to reach her alternate blaster in her bags on the carriage.

Helen pointed to her left when a scream came again from that direction. D raced off while Sarah paused. "You ok here?"

"What does it look like?" snapped Helen, taking down another devil with barely a batted eyelid. "Go get Charlotte."

Sarah followed D, who was now out of sight but where he'd gone was obvious enough.

She paused at the scene that met her eyes as she came into view of D and Charlotte.

Charlotte's horse was suspended from the ground and obviously dead, with four mist devils latched onto its corpse – most of the body had been liquefied by this point, but the skeleton remained.

Charlotte was fighting vines that were slowly enveloping her body – they'd already locked her left arm and shoulder in place, and a mist devil had latched onto her hand – not much was left of it, and it was beginning to move up her arm. Controlling the vines were three women…or things that looked like woman on one level. They were naked, their bodies visions of perfection as they threw the vines ever tighter around Charlotte, but their faces were twisted, both with hate and something more. D had his sword out and was charging at them with deadly grace, the metal catching the sun as it arched towards the first woman.

Despite the danger of the situation, Sarah found herself catching her breath at the sheer beauty and power encapsulated in the picture he made.

'Just pheromones,' she told herself firmly, taking aim at a second of the women and loosing a shot of energy that seared the thing's arm and made her turn and hiss at Sarah. 'Just pheromones and you know it.'

D neatly beheaded the first woman, effortlessly dodging the barrage of spikes that protruded from her vines to grasp at him, then, pivoting on the spot, drove his sword deeply into the abdomen of another, leaving only the one Sarah had singed.

"Help her," he threw over his shoulder to Sarah, wrenching his sword free.

Sarah nodded and fired at the mist devil, not quite hitting it, but scaring it off Charlotte's arm. Charlotte screamed again as a jet of blood shot from where her hand had been as the devil detached itself. Sarah shot it out of the air and then scrambled over the vines towards Charlotte, ripping a strip off her shirt as she went when something wrapped around her ankle and pulled her down.

She stared with horror and disbelief at the dismembered head of the first woman D had 'killed' as it leered back at her, more vines protruding to wrap around her legs.

She was bringing the blaster up to point at the head when more vines wrapped around her arms, immobilising them. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw one of the devils that had been on the horse start to float lazily in her direction.

"D!" she yelled, managing to get out only his name before another vine wrapped around her head, acting as a gag and silencing her. Wrenching her head around before more vines prevented her from moving any further, she watched in amazement as D fought, his sword becoming a blur of deadly silver around him as more and more vines reached for him. The women he'd injured were pulling themselves back together – literally – as the other was laughing at D's attempts to fight, the burn mark Sarah had given her still livid on her arm.

'The burn,' Sarah realised in a moment of horror. 'Heat – they don't seem to be able to heal it. But then D's sword won't do any good…'

Indeed, it didn't seem to be able to stop them for long – almost as soon as D had sliced a wicked point off a vine aimed at his heart, it grew back. Sarah suddenly had a second, horrifying, epiphany.

'Dhampir,' she though frantically. 'Vampire's weaknesses – wooden stakes. If one of those goes through his heart, he'll be dead. But then, so will I be shortly, unless I do something.' She eyed the devil, drifting ever nearer, and her blaster, lying just out of reach where she'd dropped it when the woman had pulled her over.

She eyed the women once again – their attention seemed to be focused on D who was still fighting in a graceful, deadly dance with the vines that was becoming far too close for comfort.

'This is going to hurt,' was Sarah's last coherent thought as she closed her eyes.

Someone watching Sarah would have found it hard to describe what they saw. It was as if Sarah's body became a cloud of red mist, which shot upwards out of the tangle of vines and then reformed into an enormous silver and grey wolf stood on top of the vines that, a second ago, had imprisoned her within them.

All Sarah was aware of was the pain, the breathtaking, agonising pain. There was always a certain amount of pain associated with the shift, but nothing normally like this – it was the vines passing through her as she changed, some deep, still rational part of her mind acknowledged. A moment later, it was over, and she had four legs instead of two, but she still took a split second to regain control after the pain.

One of the women seemed to realise that something had happened to her other captive and looked around, but to Sarah it now seemed slow, so slow, as if everyone was moving at half the speed they had previously. Effortlessly – exulting all the while in the freedom this body allowed her, she surged towards the blaster, catching the handle between her teeth and tossing it in a high arch towards D, hoping that he'd be intelligent enough to at least try it.

As it stood, he was, and caught it without even watching, bringing it down in one smooth motion so the blaster was aimed at one of the women's foreheads. Her eyes widened with shock, but he pulled the trigger before she could react any further, and her head crumbled to a smoking ruin, her body dropping lifelessly to the floor at D's feet while he turned the blaster on a second woman.

The third turned to run. Sarah's instincts surged at what she viewed as prey and she followed after her, easily slipping around the vines that shot out at her, before casually ripping out the back of the prey's leg. Exulting in the taste of still warm flesh in her mouth, she snarled as the woman swiped at her with hands that were suddenly thorn covered. A sudden blast of heat shot over her shoulder and the woman died without so much as a whimper.

Furious at the loss of her kill, Sarah turned to find who had robbed her of taking the woman's life, to find D staring at her in a way that could have been called distasteful.

'Time to come home now,' said a voice deep in Sarah's mind.

The rest of Sarah disagreed, vehemently. She liked this body, she liked living like this, there was no reason to go back to being a two legger, all stiff and upright and unable to smell the scent of the coming dawn on the wind.

'What about Beth?' said the same voice from inside her. 'What about your pack?'

Pack, acknowledged the rest of Sarah. Pack was a concept she could understand no matter what body was in use. Two legger it would be.

Sarah the wolf sat and closed her eyes, concentrating. Inside, Sarah remembered – the feel of grass on bare feet rather than pads, quiet evening meals with Beth and Helen, oil and grit on her hands and under her nails in the workshop, the first view of her nephew on an ultrasound scan…

'Ah,' thought the rest of her. '_That's_ what being a human is, I remember now.'

She became mist once more, but the pain this time was no where near as bad as it had been – less agony, more stretching long-cramped muscles. Less than a second later, she rematerialised, human once more.

Naked human, admittedly, but human.

D hadn't seen her change, but had already turned away to see to Charlotte who, now freed from her prison of vines, was sat on the ground, whimpering and clutching the still bleeding stump of her left wrist.

Sarah went to help when she became aware that D had stopped, frozen as still as a statue.

"D?" she asked, confused – she couldn't see, nor smell, any new threats. Then drawing level with him, she gasped as she realised his lips were drawn back to expose fangs, and his face looked almost identical to how Erik's had – the mask of the vampire visage – and he was staring at the pool of blood under Charlotte's wrist.

((A/N: Cliff hanger. Whoops, naughty me. On a more serious note, if you liked the characterisation given to some of the shifting Sarah did in this chapter, the credit goes not to me, but to Tamora Pierce, who is an excellent young person's author, and I would heartily recommend her 'Wild Magic' series to any who liked this – there were, and will continue to be, some serious nods in her direction in this story.))


	7. Seven

"D?" said Sarah, watching him with wide eyes. Charlotte didn't appear to notice their little tableau, her attention remaining focused on her injuries

A long moment passed when the only thing audible was D's harsh breathing and Charlotte's whimpering. Then, finally, he spoke.

"Bind her wounds, quickly."

The words sound like they were ground out from between gritted teeth, and indeed, the fangs did look like they were quivering, as if they and D were locked in an epic internal struggle as to whether they should be out or in.

Sarah hurried towards Charlotte, scooping up the pieces of her ruined clothes as she went. Charlotte cringed away from her and whimpered, but Sarah, at this moment in time, didn't have time to mollycoddle her or whisper reassurances. Quickly, she applied a tourniquet using the now ruined waistband of her trousers, and then wrapped the rest of the fabric around the wound. Using her shirt, she mopped up as much of the blood as she could, and threw it a fair distance away into the forest. Then she glanced back at D.

His fangs had retracted, and his breathing seemed easier now. As he glanced at the pair of women, he shifted his weight on his feet.

"Can she walk?" he asked.

Sarah studied Charlotte, obviously considering the question. Charlotte just stayed still, crying silently. "If not, I can carry her," replied Sarah.

That raised a cry of protest from Charlotte, who unstably struggled to her feet. Sarah followed, leaving some distance between her and the frightened girl as Charlotte was obviously terrified of her. D had already started walking back in the direction of the carriage, avoiding Charlotte, and the smell of blood she carried with her.

Sarah could see Helen's mouth tighten in anger as they came into view – the devils all seemed to have been killed or driven away, but Sarah could tell from the look in Helen's eye that she was about to catch it for not being around to stop another casualty on this trip from being created.

D, meanwhile, was striding off towards the trees. Helen shot him a murderous glance and then hurried over to Charlotte, ushering her into the carriage and slamming the door.

Sarah, feeling slightly useless, retrieved some spare clothes form her bags on the roof of the carriage, and then set about making camp.

A couple of hours later, Helen emerged from the carriage, looking tired, blood smeared and pissed off.

"All right," she said, sitting down beside Sarah, who was cringing by the fire, and snagging a packet of rations that had been laid out. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't chew you the fuck out for not being here when we needed you. The two non-humans wander off from the humans, leaving them to fend for themselves? In the middle of the dead zone? What the fuck were you thinking?"

Sarah nodded along with Helen's rant. "You're right," she said, finally, when Helen came to a stop. "We weren't…or at least, I wasn't, I can't speak for him. I was just worried that he'd refuse to come with us anymore, and then we'd have to turn back, that put all other thoughts out of my head. I'll apologise to Charlotte once she lets me near her again."

Helen nodded slowly, not quite accepting the unspoken apology, but accepting the reasons behind it.

"So, is he travelling on with us?"

"I don't honestly know," answered Sarah, doubtfully. "I ended up telling him most of everything. Left a few details out, but nothing important."

Helen raised an eyebrow, and took another bite of her ration pack, chewing thoughtfully. "What was his reaction?"

"He said we should kill the child, and that'd both reduce the threat from Erik, and be doing the kid a favour."

Helen nodded, not looking overly surprised. "Did he look like he'd try to do it himself?"

Sarah sighed in a tired way. "I don't know. He didn't seem to, but he seemed pretty pissed off when I said we needed Gabriel…I think the subject might have hit a little close to home for him. He's a dhampir."

Helen paused, her eyes widening as she took in this new piece of information. "Well, that explains more than it doesn't." She glanced at the carriage. "Possibly when Charlotte wakes up, I should explain. It might lead to her not going off on her own so much with him."

"She managed to sleep after **that**?" asked Sarah, surprised.

"I sedated her," Helen replied, flatly. "Otherwise I don't think she'd ever sleep again. I suppose you've realised her life is pretty much ruined now? No one will want a nurse with one hand."

Sarah winced. "Shit – I'll make her a mechanical one, I've got a few cranks lying around back in Aamas that I can use for parts."

"I don't know if she'll take it," warned Helen. "She knows what you are too, don't forget."

"Not likely," said Sarah dryly. "The way she keeps flinching whenever I breathe in."

"She said you shifted in front of her."

"Not much choice, to be honest with you," said Sarah. Haltingly, and with the realisation that she wanted to spend far more time describing how D had looked than the actual battle, she told Helen what had happened. 'Pheromones,' she told herself sternly.

Afterwards, Helen nodded, then yawned. "Fuck, it's late…or early. I don't know, but I'm going to bed. You take first watch until himself comes to do his part?" she jerked her head towards the trees to indicate that she meant D.

Sarah frowned. "I don't know if I want him around Beth with non of us around to step in between them."

"You don't really have a choice; if he really wants the kid dead, there will very soon come a time where you won't be able to stop him. If you can't trust him to take a watch, we may as well go back to Aamas now."

Sarah sighed. "You're right – as normal. Only until he comes back then."

Nodding, Helen rose and went back to the carriage, leaving Sarah staring moodily into the fire in the morning sunshine, listening intently for any sounds that carried danger.


	8. Eight

"You're stalling for time, you know. You don't actually need to be here."

"It is none of your concern."

The two voices echoed through the otherwise silent shade of the woods. Were one to look, they'd have had trouble spotting D at first, as he was lying in a shallow covered grave, with only his head exposed. The other speaker was nowhere in sight.

"Pft, please; not like I'm gonna get the chance to speak any other time, is it now? Surrounded by all of them… and since when have you ever buried yourself before you started feeling the heat? You're hiding!"

"I am not." D's voice had an edge of frustration to it.

"Can't fool me, I know how you think, how you feel, and how you feel about this is mighty conflicted. Another dhampir – another one just like you, meant to walk the earth forever alone, never able to so much as touch another, forever consumed by hunger, hated by both kinds-"

"Enough!" 

There was a moment of silence, and then raspy chuckling could be heard, getting ever louder.

"But that's what's eating you, isn't it? The fact that it might not be like that – that they might not be like you, with all your pain. You can't help but wonder if the fact that this kid's mother and aunt might live forever too would be enough to stop the pain you live with, and that hurts **you**, makes you wonder about your own famil-emhfff!"

D clenched his jaw, and some movement could be seen under the soil. The words he spoke sounded practically feral they were growled so. "I said enough."

There was muttered grumbling, and then silence. Eventually, D seemed to relax. Then the other voice returned again. "Ok, ok – didn't mean to make you all ratty."

D snorted quietly, as if he knew the exact amount of truth in that statement and found it to be lacking.

"So, you decided what you gonna do yet?"

There was a long pause while D seemed to consider this question.

"I don't know."

"Well, you're gonna have to decide, and soon. I mean – there's two choices, really. Take them on, or leave them to their own devices, to go on or back by themselves…and we got problems with both of those."

"I am aware."

The other voice seemed not to take notice of D. "I mean, take 'em on, and it means there's another dhampir in the world, possibly stronger than you, with two guardians who, if the brunette back at the carriage is anything to go by, ain't exactly gonna be dainty little things themselves. But…they'll probably be on your side."

"Maybe."

"Or, you leave 'em, which means they could all die out here, or the mom could die when Erik takes the kid, or they could make it to civilisation only for the mom or, or 'and', the kid to die, which means you're risking a whole lot of deaths, at least one pissed off half-were when the brunette gets through with you, and possibly a dhampir who's gonna whoop your ass in twenty years time because he's either been raised by the nobility, or blames you for the death of his mother."

There was another momentary pause as they both seemed to consider these two options, trying to decide which was preferable.

"Damn…we're continuing on with them, ain't we?"

"Looks that way," D said evenly.

"Then, then may I suggest something?"

"What?" There was a cautious tone in D's voice.

"Get your ass back to camp before something else tries to eat 'em!"

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

The sun had long since peaked and was heading towards the western horizon when Sarah – now feeling very sleepy herself – looked up at the sound of movement from the direction of the forest. Gripping her blaster, she relaxed when, after a few minutes, D drifted into her line of sight through the trees.

She bit back a snarky remark about the time and merely said. "Great – if you're back, can you take watch so I can get some rest?"

D merely nodded, and raised his eyebrow at the debris surrounding Sarah.

The average human ate approximately one ration pack per meal. Sarah was surrounded by the wrappers from at least twenty.

"What?" said Sarah, sounding defensive. "The change takes a lot of energy; I'll go into hypoglycaemic shock if I don't eat to replace it."

D shrugged wordlessly, and settled on the drivers seat at the front of the carriage. Sarah didn't even bother to move from her spot, but simply lay down in it, throwing her coat over herself as a cover, and pillowing her head on her arm.

Then she turned over and tried the other side. Then lay on her back. Then on her front. Then tried her side again.

This tossing and turning continued for a while, until finally Sarah sat up again and addressed D.

"Are you going to kill Gabriel?"

D raised an eyebrow at her. "Gabriel?"

"The baby – Beth picked his name once we knew his gender."

There was a momentary silence before D answered. "I will not harm your sister or the child."

"But you will leave us to be harmed by something else should it take your fancy, right?"

"I will see you to Hamilton – that was the contract, and I will see it out."

"So you thought about doing it?"

Another pause. Then, finally, D said "Yes."

Sarah stared at D for a good minute in silence. D didn't appear discomfited by this. Eventually, she asked "Is your life really so bad that you'd not even give him the chance to live, were it down to you?"

D looked Sarah, as if considering something. "How old are you?" he eventually asked.

"74," said Sarah – she looked no older than 21.

D seemed to consider something again, then finally, spoke. "I've lost count of how many years I've walked this earth. Occasionally, when I'm passing my homeland, I go back and work it out. I always forget the exact number, but I know that, within a few centuries, I'll be passing the ten millennia mark."

Sarah's eyes went round at this. Then, after mulling it over for a couple of seconds, she asked "So you're old – what has that to do with it?"

D sighed softly. "I walk this road with no companions, constantly surrounded by fear and hate from all sides, my life a constant battle with those such as the one who hurt your sister. Imagine living like that, for ten thousand years, with little to no hope of ever even dying well. Would you wish that on someone else?"

"But Gabriel won't be like that," Sarah pointed out. "He has me, and he has his mother – he won't be alone."

"But you aren't dhampirs."

"We'll still be with him – we won't die from old age any more than you would. Werewolves are just as ageless as vampires, you know, they're just less powerful."

"I am aware. But even with your companionship, his life…will be far from happy."

"You think."

"No," D's voice was pained in its evenness. "I know. And I'm probably the only one who does."

This seemed to perplex Sarah, and she sat in silent contemplation of their conversation for a while.

"Do you have any more questions, or will you sleep now?" said D, voice still even, but Sarah squinted as him suspiciously, certain she could hear something like sarcasm in his tone.

"Nope, all done. So I'll be sleeping now, unless you have any questions for me, that is?" Sarah's last sentence was slightly mocking, and obviously facetious, but D took it seriously.

"Just one." 

"Oh?"

"Your sister and yourself are twins, you said – why does she have this weakness, and you don't?"

Sarah sighed. "When we were born, Mother had to reveal to the attending doctor what our father was…the doctor decided we were abominations and had to be destroyed, so he took the task upon himself to do so. Mother stopped him before he killed her, but he started this little 'job' by stabbing Beth with a silver dinner knife. We…find silver wounds hard to heal. They take almost as long to do so as a human's equivalent wound would…and for a baby who was less than an hour old, with a less than matured immune system? She's been weak, even for a human, ever since."

D appeared to absorb this information. "That satisfy your curiosity?" asked Sarah, unable to keep the slightly sarcastic tone out of her voice.

"Yes," said D, voice flat.

"Good," shot back Sarah, settling down under her coat again. "Then I'm going to sleep."

They spoke no more after that until Helen emerged from the carriage several hours later and they began to prepare to move…but Sarah found it very hard to sleep after that.

If D noticed this, he didn't say.


	9. Nine

"How many stimulants do you have with you?"

D's question came seemingly out of nowhere – the sun was well past its highest point and on the way to the western horizon, and they were breaking camp. The fire had been stamped out, Charlotte's things had been packed by Helen and loaded into the carriage with the injured woman – who, apparently had no intention of ever emerging – and Sarah was just tacking up her horse. D's cyborg was standing motionless and obedient as he packed his own saddlebags.

"A few – given my main priority is keeping my patient in a coma, I can't say I exactly stocked up, so we've got however many are in the call bag. Why?" Helen turned to look at D curiously, leaning on the carriage.

D didn't look up, just kept methodically doing up the buckles on the satchels. "I am worried about Erik – it's best to keep moving at night, but if you were to dose yourselves up on stimulants, we could reach Hamilton before tomorrow's dusk. Having to wait to rest would mean another night in this zone and under threat."

He snapped the final pouch shut and finally looked at her. "Better to keep you dosed and keep moving."

Sarah looked at Helen, who was thinking.

"We only need to dose me," she said, finally. "Charlotte isn't exactly much use to us now with her injury so there's no need to keep her awake. And Sarah..."

Sarah finished the sentence for her. "Drugs don't work on me. Poisons, diseases, anything that isn't silver based just seems to bounce off. If Beth's kidneys and liver functioned like they were supposed to, they wouldn't on her either, but." She shrugged. "We got lucky, I guess. For a given value of lucky."

"How long can you go without sleep?"

Sarah sighed and closed her eyes, frowning in a mental calculation. "If I haven't shifted and don't plan to? Up to a month, if I push it. But I have – from this point on, I can do another four days, at most – my ability to function will be impaired after two, maybe three if we're lucky. If I need to shift again any time soon, I'll need to sleep as much as a normal human would, and I'll have eaten us pretty much out of ration packets – if I need to fur up again, might be wiser for me to stay that way."

"Why not do that now?" D's voice was impassive, but something about his inflection made her want to rage and slap him for taunting her. She stifled the urge to shake her head as if to throw off the sensation – maybe the pheromones did work on her, just not quite as advertised. "We don't need to drag the mount along with us and you fight more efficiently in that form."

"And I run the risk of forgetting how to turn back," snapped Sarah, mounting up just so she didn't have to look at him while she spoke. 'Smug git,' she added inside her own head. "Spend too long in wolf form and I'll forget what it's like to be human. Then I'll forget that I ever needed or wanted to be human. And then I might not come back. If Beth was conscious, we could risk it, because she could talk me back, but with her out, no."

Her voice was flat and brooked no argument. D apparently took the hint, because he mounted up wordlessly. Helen ducked her head inside the carriage and emerged with three syringes and three needles which she slipped into the pockets of her coat. "Straight run it is then," she said, clambering up onto the drivers seat.

They set off.

***

They made good time, and in the still bright sunshine of the late afternoon, Sarah began to enjoy the ride – in the daylight, the dead zone was innocuous, innocent, inviting. The path they travelled on was wide, clear and flat, and on either side of it grew large bushes covered in flowers, most a startling shade of pink, but some purples, yellows and whites sprinkled here and there. It looked like something out of an old fairy story.

Of course, it had grown so beautifully deliberately – all the better to fool you with. Travellers were lured in during daylight hours, but the zone was too large to be crossed in one day. Which meant when the sun set and the nasties came out, they were still there to be chewed on.

Somehow, that knowledge didn't touch Sarah at that moment – she could ignore it in favour of admiring the bright flowers, the bubbling streams of crystal clear water, the sunlight filtering through the leaves. Everything about the place put her in a good mood.

A smile worked its way onto her face without her meaning to put it there. A feeling of unadulterated mirth and hope spread through her body – they had D! Erik and he could face off while they got Beth to safety! Everything would be all rig-

Her good mood vanished faster than she could blink. Her olfactory senses had kicked in, and she could smell the serotonin, oxytocin, endorphines – anything and everything designed to stimulate pleasure and happiness in the human mind was being throw out in buckets from the flowers. Now she was filtering it out, she could see the reality – in between the bunches of flowers could be glimpsed giant Venus fly trap-like mouths, gaping open, waiting to swallow any passer-by that was taken in enough to stray into their embrace.

She looked around at the other two. Helen looked dreamily happy, a light smile playing across her lips, oblivious but not delirious, but then the drivers seat of the carriage meant she was being carried mostly above the clouds of mind-altering scents that the blossoms were throwing off. Only those riding or walking would get the full blast.

Which meant the ones in danger were her...and D.

Her head snapped around to look for D, who had been riding in front of them, taking point. His cyborg was being ridden closer and closer to the flower bank, and he was even starting to lean out of his saddle towards them a little bit. Any further and he might-

"D!" She shouted.

D didn't react at first, but he did pause what he was doing, about 2 inches away from the surface of the blooms. After four seconds or so, he looked round at her, blinking as if she had awakened him from a pleasant dream. He didn't ask anything out loud, just raised an eyebrow in question.

She cantered her mount up to him. "They're giving off pheromones, they're tricking your mind, the plants are trying to eat us," she said, slowly and loudly, hoping whatever trance the chemicals were designed to put normal humans into, it wouldn't work so well with a dhampir.

D blinked once, and then again, frowning slightly, as if trying very hard to make sense of what she just said but having to fight to even start. Behind her, Helen giggled. "Oh Sarah, you're always about pheromones, sometimes I think you're obsessed."

Sarah twisted in her saddle – as she did so, the sunlight caught on the particles in the air – they were rising.

"Oh shit," muttered Sarah, turning back to look at D...just in time to see the bushes further up the path, behind D, shuffle closer together, narrowing the path.

"Oh fuck!" she yelled. Ripped off both the sleeves on her shirt, she unhooked her water bottle and doused both pieces of fabric in water. She slapped one into D's hand and tossed the other to Helen, who didn't catch it, but looked at it with bemusement when it landed in her lap.

"They know we're here!" She shouted, putting as much authority into her voice as possible. D was looking at her now, frowning hard, as if he was so close to concentrating, but so far. "Helen! Put that over your nose and mouth – it'll help filter it out! We have to go!"

She snatched the cyborg's reigns out of D's unresisting hand, and rode back towards Helen. "Helen!"

The older woman rolled her eyes and giggled at her again. Sarah stifled the urge to scream in frustration as the rustling sounds from the surrounding vegetation started getting louder. Sarah stood up in the saddle and grabbed the carriage's reigns, then looked Helen in the eye, letting a growl come into her voice.

"For fuck's sake woman, put the fucking cloth over your fucking nose and mouth!"

Helen giggled again, but this time put the cloth to her face, rolling her eyes as if she was humouring an indignant child.

Sarah didn't have time to argue. She spurred her horse forward, dragging the others by their reigns behind her, leaping into a gallop. Helen was still laughing as she tried to hang on to both the carriage and the wet sleeve as their speed suddenly kicked up, while D was still clinging to his own saddle with a grim look in his eyes that told Sarah he knew something was wrong, but still had too much of the drug in his system to process what exactly.

The ground flew under them, and the rustling of the undergrowth grew until she could hear branches around them snapping and reforming. There was a commotion behind them, and she turned to see one of the traps had actually launched out of the bushes to snap that them, missing the end of the carriage by only inches. She kicked her horse faster, her lips pressed into a thin line of determination.

The bushes shuffled closer together – Sarah could just make out an end to the bushes, but it must have been a hundred foot away or more.

There was a snap right next to her, and one of the traps sprung out towards her horse. Sarah leant forward, trying to reach it, but it was as if she was moving in slow motion; she knew she'd never get there in time.

The teeth suddenly stopped about three inches away from her mount's neck, the main part of the vine severed.

Sarah glanced around to find D now had his sword in one hand and the other still plastering the cloth over his face, no longer having to bother directing his cyborg as Sarah had his reigns. He met her eyes and she felt a wave of relief crash over her to see coherence in his gaze once more.

The pushed forwards, having no choice but to impact with the bushes now. Up on the carriage, Helen was laughing ever more hysterically, while D seemed to be everywhere with his sword, severing the traps before they could reach Sarah or the carriage. There was the scream of a horse behind them, and Sarah glanced around to see that Charlotte's horse, which had been tethered to the back of the carriage, had been grabbed and was being dragged off. She looked at D who shrugged infinitesimally before severing another trap – she could understand his logic. As long as Charlotte couldn't ride, they couldn't use the horse, so had no reason to risk their lives protecting it. She felt a bit sorry for the poor animal, but understood there was nothing else to be done.

The edge of the bushes was coming up fast. Sarah leant forward and pressed her knees together harder to urge the animal on, feeling the carriage horses and D's cyborg pick up pace slightly as well. 10 seconds and they'd be out! 8, 7-

Her horse gave a scream and Sarah flew forwards as the saddle disappeared from under her, landing outside the bushes and having to drop the reigns and roll sideways to avoid being trampled by D's cyborg or run over by the carriage. She rolled at an odd angle and felt the bones in her arm twist and groan at the strain they were being made to take – if she were a normal human she'd be looking at a compound fracture. As it was, as she tottered to her feet and staggered slightly, trying to regain her balance, she was left feeling sore with a handful of bruises – and no horse.

D had managed to grab the carriage reigns, so dragged both of them to a stop and then dismounted and made his way over to her. His gaze was enquiring – Sarah presumed after her own health, so she waved her hand so show she was ok, although she was still panting for breath. "I'm fine," she managed. "What happened?"

D looked as implacable as ever. "I cannot be in two places at once – the choice was to save your horse or the doctor, and I made it."

They both looked at Helen, who was still laughing hysterically from the driver's seat of the carriage. "Good choice," said Sarah, and meaning it – they'd have been fucked if Helen had died. "But we might have to wait a while before she's any good to us again."

D cocked his head to the side slightly. "We need to press on – can we fit her inside the carriage while you drive?"

Sarah frowned, wiping the dust and plant debris off her trousers as she did so. "If we strap some of the supplies to the roof, we might. It'll be a bit of a squeeze though."

D shrugged, which Sarah took to mean that a squeeze was a consequence they'd have to live with, and went to rearrange everything.


End file.
